http://www.fao.org/asiapacific/events/detail-events/en/c/1440/

1. Pulses for Improved Nutrition and
the Role of Biotechnologies
Rajeev K. Varshney
Research Program Director
Genetic Gains

2. Major challenges in Asia
Population
Poverty
Resource scarcity Adapting to
changing climate
Limited
Arable land
Rise in sea levels
Atmospheric CO2 levels have risen and may
not dip below 400 ppm again Source: Climate Central

3. Hunger in largest agricultural producing
region!!!!
• Poverty: People cannot afford nutritious food
• Lack of key agricultural infrastructure
• Natural disasters are on the increase
• Conflicts consistently disrupt
farming and food production
• Uprising food prices
• One third of all food produced (1.3 billion tons) is never
consumed

4. Global hunger crisis
The Global Hunger
Index (GHI) is
designed to
comprehensively
measure and track
hunger globally
and by country
and region by the
International Food
Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI). Alarming

5. Global Hunger Index in Asia
* A higher rank implies a worsening hunger situation
Source: Global Hunger Index-2016

6. Malnutrition- hidden hunger
MALNUTRITION IN ALL ITS FORMS
Child stunting Child wasting Child overweight Micronutrient
deficiency
Adult obesity Noncommunicable
diseases
Adult overweight
Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a
person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients.
Source: World Health Organization, 2016
Most affected are women and children under 5

7. How serious is malnutrition in Asia?
Source: UNICEF, WHO, World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition dataset, May 2017 update
Under-nutrition
contributes to
deaths in children
under 5 in Asia

8. Wasting is a condition typified by a
low weight-to-height ratio, and
brought on by undernourishment.
- WHO
Nutrition atlas
of India
National Institute of Nutrition, India
Issues:
• Access to adequate food
• Lack of dietary diversity
• Lack of information on
optimum nutrition
• Susceptibility to metabolic
disease

9. Pulses for nutrition security

10. Crop
diversification
Pulses
Crops harvested solely for dry seeds
Dietary
diversification Global food
security
Improved
livelihood
Environmental
sustainability
Water
footprint
Nitrogen fixation
Pulses play an important role in food &
nutrition security
• Suitable for
marginal
environments
• High protein and
mineral source
• Long shelf-life
• Diversification of
cereal-based
system
• Improves soil
condition
• Low water usage

11. Source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

12. Pulses
of
South
Asia
.
.
.
.
Lentils
(Lens culinaris)
7%
Pigeon pea
(Cajanus cajan)
10%
Cowpea
(Vigna unguiculata)
<1%
Dry Peas
(Pisum sativum)
3%
Chickpea
(Cicer arietinum)
44%
Other minor
pulses
9%
Broad Beans
(Vicia faba)
<1%
Phaseolus spp.
27% Source: FAO 2014
A variety of pulses grown and consumed in Asia

13. http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/1BcMNygMDdIrgLQsegvNgK/The-pulses-crisis-why-reinvent-the-wheel.html
Crop Area
(mha)
Production
(mt)
Yield
(t/ha)
Chickpea 13.54 13.10 0.97
Pigeonpea 6.21 4.74 0.76
Source: FAO 2015
(access on Jun 26,2015)
Feeding billions and bringing
prosperity in developing countries !

14. Biotechnologies for improving nutrition in pulses

15. Role of biotechnologies
Enhance yield
Reduce yield loss
Due to biotic and abiotic stresses
Enriching micronutrients
Micronutrients such as vitamin A, Fe, Zn etc.
Reduce anti-nutritional factors
Protein inhibitors, lectins, tanins, phytic acids, allergens etc.

16. Key biotechnologies
Accelerated
Breeding
• Molecular markers/ candidate
genes/ genomic regions
Lin et al., 2014
Barkley and Wang, 2008
• Metabolic engineering
• TILLING• Gene editing
• Transgenic “knockouts”
• Tissue culture technique
Marker-assisted
breeding
Sci. Rep. 2015

17. Harnessing alleles
from genebanks
• 1,700 genebanks
• 7.4 million accessions currently
maintained globally, of which 13% in the
CGIAR centres
• Genomic characterization of genebank
material is essential
• Needs to associate allelic value with
phenotype
• Transfer in elite varieties

18. PLoS Biol 2014
Translational
genomics
approaches

19. Adzuki Beans
PNAS 2015
Sci Rep 2015
Mung Beans
Nature Communications 2014
Chickpea
Nature Biotechnology 2013
Pigeonpea
Nature Biotechnology 2012
Pulses Genome Sequencing
Resource for untapping potential for genetic improvement

20. Sequencing of only (and one) reference
genome is not enough!
Global / base
collection
Composite
collection
Multiseason and
multilocation evaluation
data for 50 traits
ICRISAT reference
set
Wild accessions,
landraces and
breeding lines
Core
collection

21. 1000
Pulse
Genomes
Chickpea
Pigeonpea
Diverse lines
(90)
Elite varieties
(129)
Reference set
(300)
154 parental
lines of hybrids
Reference set
(300)
- 554 lines in
chickpea
- 474 lines in
pigeonpea
Parental lines
(20)
Parental lines
(35)
1000 pulse genomes re-sequencing

22. - Samples representing 23 countries

23. The 3000 Chickpea Genome Sequencing
Initiative
• Total no. of samples: 3196
• Total data: ~28.41 Tbp
• Data range: 3.7 – 25 Gbp
• Average data per sample: ~9Gbp
• Average Coverage: ~12X (5X – 33X)

24. Phenotyping of 3000 chickpeas
• Nutritional profiling for protein, Fe and Zn content
• Useful resource for future breeding
• High resolution GWAS
• Sources of variation and location specific favourable alleles
• Highly accurate genomic prediction
• Source for G x E estimation
If there is sufficient genetic variation for the density of micronutrients in edible
parts of the crop, bio-fortification can be achieved through plant breeding
(Mayer et al., 2008)

25. QTLs governing seed- Fe and Zn concentration
in chickpea
Upadhyaya et al. 2016

26. Candidate genes involved in carotenoid
biosynthesis in chickpea seeds
Rezaei et al. 2016

27. “QTL-hotspot” introgression lines in chickpea
Enhanced root
length density

28. 0
50
100
150
200
250
300
EUM1
EUM2
EUM3
EUM4
EUM5
Chania-RP
EUM7
EUM8
EUM9
EUM10
EUM11
ICC4958-DP
Yield Gms/plot
Biomss/plot
Improved lines with higher yield under rainfed and irrigated
conditions in India, Kenya and Ethiopia
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
13 superior MABC lines in Kenya
-17-47% higher seed yield
- 12-43% higher biomass
>40% yield above standard
check in Ethiopia
3 lines promoted to AVT in India

29. A: IL 53, B: IL 60, C: IL 103, D: IL 59
Different branching pattern in
Introgression lines
(ICPL 87119 x ICPW 12)
A B
C D
High yielding lines in
Introgression lines
A B
C
A- IL-15, B: IL-15, C: IL-113
Introgression pigeonpea lines with higher
yield and enhanced resistance to diseses

30. Improved high and low oil content lines in
groundnut
Plant Science, 2015

31. Summary…
• Pulses are essential for nutritional security in the Asia pacific region.
• Genome sequences available, re-sequencing, genome-wide association
analysis and functional genomics approaches can identify candidate genes
and metabolic pathways associated with different nutritional elements.
• Molecular breeding can help enhancing yield/ crop productivity to
enhance crop production/ per capita consumption.
• Traditional approaches such as high yielding varieties should replace old
varieties, rice fallows and new niches should be used for enhancing
production.
• Gene editing and metabolic engineering approaches should be explored.

32. Mahendar Thudi
Rachit K Saxena
Manish Roorkiwal
Anu Chitikineni
K Himabindu
Vikas Singh
Aamir Khan
Prasad Bajaja
Vanika Garg
Dadakhalandar Doddamani
Abhishek Rathore
Pooran Gaur
CV Sameerkumar
Hari D Upadhayaya
Lakshmanan Krishnamurthy
Vincent Vadez
KB Saxena
S Srinivasan
Acknowledgements
Funders

33. Learning Systems Unit (LSU)
Thank You !